Little Four
by StarsInMasonJars
Summary: Pitch is back and this time, he has a team of villains that seem oddly familiar. In order to keep the balance in the Guardian's favor, Manny chooses a new Four. Hiccup, Merida, and Rapunzel must join Jack Frost, the Guardian of Fun, to defeat Pitch and save the children of the world... if they don't kill each other first. (on vacation)
1. Pitch is Back

The door to North's office bursts open and in runs Bunny, out of breath, eyes wild. "North, come quickly." He takes a few deep breaths. "You're going to want to see this, mate."

North knew immediately that now was not the time to fool around. Bunny is being serious. "What is big problem?" North asks as he saunters into the Main Hall, the room that holds his Globe. "Did elves knock over the displays again?" He looks down at a particularly guilty looking elf. "What did I tell you about playing with the toys?"

Tooth flutters in. "That's not it, North. This is much more serious." She gestures to the area in front of his giant fire place where a giant blue crystal rises from an opening in the floor. "It's the Man in the Moon. Something is wrong."

North gazes up at the window where the silver celestial being peers in. "Hello, Manny!" But something in the air tells North that this is no friendly greeting. He can tell that the other Guardians are on edge as well. Even Sandman looks impish as the light of the moon falls on the crystal. "What is big news? Do we have a new Guardian already?"

A silhouette appears on the floor before the crystal. Tooth gasps. "No," she flits closer, "not Pitch again." The shadow of Pitch disappears and another appears in its place. A woman, with curling hair. Tooth tilts her head to the side. "Is that?"

Sandman nods, and North answers, "Mother Gothel. She is working with Pitch now?" The silhouette changes again. This time it is the shadow of a large bear. Bunny inches away from the picture. North slams his hand onto a nearby desk. "Mor'du! I thought they were both kaput!" But Manny wasn't finished. Yet another silhouette appears, but none of the Guardians recognize this threat. "Must be a new guy," North murmurs. "We are in big trouble, Manny. What do we do?"

The blue crystal begins to glow, and the Big Four gather around. Sandman grabs Tooth's hand and gives it a soft pat, trying to reassure her. Bunny tries to straighten up, but ever since the last time this happened, he can't help but wonder whether Manny has finally lost it. A shape begins to form above the crystal. North steps forward, "Jack Frost? But he is already Guardian!" Then the shape changes into that of a girl with wild, curly hair.

Bunny scurries forward. "I know that girl! That is Merida DunBroch. She's the princess that killed… well I thought she killed Mor'du. She's a great warrior, but she's still just a kid."

Tooth rolls her eyes. "Please, Bunny. Haven't you learned from Jack that children are sometimes the best-," but she is cut off when the image changes again. "What? Someone else? How many people are going to be involved in this?"

North ignores Tooth's ranting as he realizes just what's going on. "Manny is choosing another Four."

Sandman nods and smiles, but Bunny seems worried. "We're getting replaced?"

North chuckles. "No, Manny would not force us into retirement, friend, but he thinks that a new Four is needed to handle this new threat. He's keeping the balance in our favor. Now the question is, who is that?" He points to the crystal where the image of a scrawny boy on a dragon has appeared.

"Hiccup," Tooth murmurs with a smile.

"Tooth, you need some water or something?" asks Bunny.

Tooth shakes her head. "No, no that's his name. Hiccup, the Dragon Rider of Berk."

North squints at the image. "Little small, isn't he?" Sandman blows sand out of his ears and taps North on the shoulder. "But, of course, size is nothing," North flusters.

Bunny taps his foot on the floor nervously. "Well that's three. Jack, Merida, and Hiccup, but who else?"

The image changes one last time and a girl with incredibly long hair appears, she clutches a frying pan in her hand. Sandman's jaw drops, and he floats up closer to the image and silently giggles. The sand above his head forms a frying pan.

North smiles and nods. "Rapunzel."

Bunny cocks a furry eyebrow. "I thought Blondie got a haircut."

Tooth shakes her head. "No, she did, but last year when an epidemic broke out in her kingdom, Manny restored her hair's power so she could heal her people. Sadly it wasn't in time to save her husband. She hasn't left her old tower since."

North begins to pace around, ignoring the murmuring of the other Guardians. He could wear a ditch in the floor, but they could not get through to him until he finally looks up with a glimmer in his eyes. "I know what we must do. We must train new Guardians. Bunny will retrieve Merida. Tooth, Hiccup. And Sandy find Rapunzel. Bring them here, and we train them. Simple. By the time Pitch makes his move he will have a whole new Four to contend with."

Tooth and Sandy fly out the window, not wanting to talk about who is in charge of retrieving the Guardian of Fun. Bunny chuckles and taps his foot on the ground twice, creating a portal to his Warren. "I suppose you'll be going after Frost?"

North sighs and nods. "Yes, I will find Jack."


	2. Gathering the Guardians

Merida

"Gah, Angus! What're yah doing now?" I yank on the reins fierce as I can, but the horse charges ahead like a raft in the white waters all the same. "Angus!" The horse ignores me again, running farther and farther into the woods, away from the trail of the beast that I have been hunting for weeks. "Yah daffy horse! Turn around!"

Suddenly, ahead of me, I can see a glowing, blue orb that floats just above the ground. A will-o'-the-wisp is leading Angus on this strange path, and just as we get close, the wisp disappears, only to reappear a few feet away. Then Angus bucks like a bull and throws me to the ground, and my blasted, unruly hair tangles in a bush. I spit curses and struggle to untangle my hair as a low chuckle sounds behind me. Just as I jerk the last locks of hair from the bush, I draw my blade and turn to face my foe with a fierce battle cry. The blade meets wood with a sharp _clank._

"Whoa, whoa, Princess! Calm down!" The bizarre creature pushes his boomerang forward a bit more, trying to put more distance between himself and Merida's sword. "I'm a friend."

My sneer melts a bit. "You're… you're a rabbit." I lower the blade a little, but not enough to make the beast feel comfortable. He might be the very thing that I'm after.

"Yes, I'm Bunny, the Easter Bunny, Guardian of Hope. I have been sent by Santa Claus, Guardian of Wonder, to retrieve you for a very important mission." Bunny rolls his eyes. Bet that sounded better in his head.

I cock an eyebrow. "You're a rabbit on a mission from Santa?" My blade meets this beast's hairy chin. "How about that?"

"Yes, I'm a rabbit!" He throws his arms in the air, frustration pulsing through him like boiling water_. I should be painting eggs now, not horsing around with some mangy haired princess who takes way too much delight in gallivanting through the forest._ "Look, you need to come with me. Now." He taps his foot on the ground twice, and to my surprise, a hole appears.

"Wait, where do you think we are going? I have to get back to my family!" I begin to back away, keeping my blade up. "I'm not going anywhere with you. Are you daft?"

Bunny grunts and grabs the shoulder of my dress. "Oh no you don't, Princess. You're coming with me." He tosses me into the whole and jumps in after.

Hiccup

The world around me spins and the clouds blend in a fluffy, white blur. I pull up, angling my "foot" to shift out of the downward spiral just as Toothless is about to crash into the water. We just barely graze the white foam as Toothless blasts forward and up again. I throw my arms into the air above me. "Alright, boy! That was great!" Toothless shakes his head and warbles. He's seemed skittish all day. I run a hand over his scaly head. "It's alright, boy. We'll head home now if you want. No more searching today. I know you must be tired."

Berk has been a jumpy place ever since the attack by Drago Bludvist, we've all been on edge about the mysterious dragon that keeps burning down buildings. I'm not sure whether it's a dragon or not. Missing animals and burnt houses don't lie, but nobody has seen the dragon responsible. I still can't believe that any of our dragons would do something like that. So in order to solve the mystery, Toothless and I have been in search of a rogue dragon, leaving my mom and Astrid in charge of the village while I'm gone.

As we're flying home, Toothless slows and jerks his head in either direction. "Bud, what's up? Is it another dragon?" Toothless lets out a low growl and tilts his head for a sharp left turn, and I deliver, trusting his instincts.

Suddenly, from out of a cloud, a colorful and very oddly shaped dragon flies into our path. I yank back and stop Toothless. We hover in the air as the bizarre dragon stares us down, but I begin to realize, this is no dragon. It's a flying woman cloaked in feathers and not my mother this time. "Who… who are you?" Toothless continues a guttural growl at the creature. "Can you talk?"

Tooth smiles. "Hello, Hiccup. My name is Toothiana, and I'm the Guardian of Memories. You and your friend here have to come with me now. There is a big problem, and we think that you can help us to solve it."

I squint at this oddly named and oddly dressed woman, if one could call her that. She certainly looks nothing like the women of Berk. "How can I trust you? You just popped out of a cloud."

Tooth smiles. "Because I bet you're wondering what attacked your village, Hiccup. The Guardians can help you find the dragon and make sure it never attacks again. Please, come with me." She holds out a hand to Hiccup.

For a moment, I consider going with her, but I slowly come to realize that I never told her my name. "Wait, wait, wait. How do you know my name? How do you know about my village?" I groan. _Great this fairy, goddess thing is what attacked Berk. We got beat up by an overgrown pixie._ _Oh Mom will love this_. "Why are you here exactly?"

Tooth's face grows very serious. "I'm here to bring you to the North Pole, and you will come."

"Frankly, I don't like the way that sounds." Then to Toothless, "Alright, boy. Let's get out of here. I think we've heard enough of this." Toothless is about to fly away when dozens of little creatures, miniatures of Toothiana, swarm us, dragging me and Toothless towards the bird lady. "No! Oh no please! If I get tossed out of the sky by a bunch of fairies then my Mom will disown me!"

Tooth chuckles and pulls one of North's snow globes from her bag. "We're going to the North Pole! I thought a little boy like you would be thrilled!" Tooth thinks she hears some return comment about being twenty, but twenty is nothing when you're hundreds of years old.

Rapunzel

"How did you find me?" Something in my stomach lurches. I've said that before, and it lead me on the most wonderful journey. _But where am I now? Right back where I started, that's where._

The little intruder stares down the frying pan and shakes his head. He certainly doesn't look like an assassin, but looks can be deceiving. He backs away, hands held high. A crescent moon appears above his head, and he points to my star charts on the ceiling.

"You're from the stars?" I lower the frying pan a little as my arm starts to ache from holding it up. I'm not used to wielding a weapon anymore, even a pan. "Can't you speak?"

The adorable little man shakes his head but points to papers and pencils splayed across my desk. I nod, giving him permission. He scribbles down a few sentences and then folds the paper into an airplane. With a gentle toss, the plane flies across the room and lands at the princess's feet. I gingerly unfold the paper and read it.

_My name is Sand Man._

_I am the Guardian of Dreams._

_The Man in the Moon, who gave you your hair the second time, sent me to find you._

_The Guardians need your help._

I look up as a jolt of memory sends my heart beating faster the Maximus can run. "The Guardians? My parents told me stories..." I grab an old satchel from a chair beside my desk. "What do I need to bring?"

Sandy starts to form objects above his head, and I scurry around to find them all. Finally when both of us are satisfied with the contents of the satchel, Sand Man begins to form a golden airplane from his sand, _I hope the princess isn't afraid of heights. What a bother that would be_. _But anyone who lives this high up must not mind the altitude._ I don my cloak and am about to hop in when I remember something. Sand Man turns to see if I'm ready, but something in my countenance must stop him before my words can.

"Wait, can I leave a message for my parents? They send a servant with supplies every week. He'll be here sometime tomorrow. They'll worry if they don't hear from me." I twiddle my fingers through my thick hair, something I'm glad to have back if just to be able to keep my hands busy with something since I don't paint much anymore.

Sand Man bites his lip but, to my relief, nods. After all, it only makes sense. He is already asking so much of her. I quickly create an explanation for my absence, seal it with my signet ring in the shape of the flower that originally gave me my power, and set it beside the entrance. Then with a blast of sand, the windows open and we soar off into the falling sunset.

Jack

"Mommy, who makes the snow?"

My heart flutters like a startled hummingbird in a cage. _Could this child be one? A new light that can see me?_ I watch as this woman holds a piece of my fate on her lips. _Will she say, "Jack Frost"? or will she write me off as everyone else does?_

"Jack Frost makes the snow, honey. He visits every morning when it's cold and leaves frost on the grass, and on special occasions, he brings snow."

A cry escapes my lips and I leap for joy, bounding off the window and flying around the giant pine nearby a few times before I have the restraint to counter the mounting joy that is building inside my chest. I manage to settle down onto the window again and listen to the child's reply. "Can I write Jack Frost a letter, like for Santa?" The young girl points to her Christmas list that her mother holds.

The mother smiles tenderly and a twinge of pain shoots into my heart. _I used to have a mother like that_. "What for?"

"To ask for more snow!" The child looks longingly at the window and a surprised look comes over her face like a shimmering veil. "Oh, Mommy!"

I put a finger over my lips as the mom turns to see what her excited daughter is pointing at. Of course, the mother looks right through me, a sensation that I will never quite grow used to, but the toddler mimics Jack's movement and nods. After her mother leaves, the little girl insists that I stay a while and talk to her. "You can fly?" Her eyes grow even wider.

"Yeah, kid, I fly everywhere! Don't you?" I give the little girl a wink.

She giggles and covers her mouth with her tiny, white hands. "No, but I do other things that you can do." I squint at her with my usual cocky smile. The little girl recognizes the disbelief. "It's true! I can make snowballs and snowmen and snow angels just like you!"

I slide little Elsa back under the covers, shaking my head all the time. "That's pretty amazing, Princess, but you need to rest. And if you do, I promise to bring you plenty of snow tomorrow, ok?"

Elsa nods. "And I'll show you what I can do." She grins and lays her head down on the pillow. "You'll love it."

My fingers stroke the little girl's hair as she falls ever-so-softly asleep. "I'm sure I will, kid." With that, I slip out the window and into the well-lit night. The Man in the Moon is shining brightly down on me. "I know that look. What do you want?" I lean my weight against the staff in my hand and peer up at the silver orb.

"Jack." I nearly jump out of my skin, but North catches me before I tumble off of the roof. "Where are you going?" North chuckles and slaps me on the back. Pain shoots through my shoulder, still injured from a practice fight with one of the yeti's. "How's that shoulder of yours?"

"Hey, North," I mumble, rubbing the shoulder in question. "I'm guessing," I glace up at the moon, "he sent you to find me. What's up now? Bunny mad cuz I snowed on his parade? Tooth needs some help with her pond freezing over again? It's Bunny, isn't it?" A moan mixed with laughter rises out of my chest. "I couldn't resist!"

North's face grows serious. "Jack, it's Pitch. He's back."

My stomach does a double-back flip and collides with my lungs, but now is not the time for me to throw up. I haven't told the other Guardians about the reoccurring nightmares about the imminent return of Pitch Black for fear that they would think I can't handle fighting off Pitch again, but after all of the drama of the fight from 5 years ago, how could anyone be up for another go at Pitch? Before I can stop it, a shudder racks my body as if I've suddenly been tossed into an icy lake, and North doesn't let it go without a comment. "I've already sent Babytooth to warn Jamie and his friends. They'll be fine; you know that. You won't have to worry about them."

I feel quite selfish. For a moment, I didn't even think of Jamie and the others, my fan group that work endlessly to spread the word about me, but now that I realize what this comment truly means, my head spins. But I trust North and the Guardians. They'll take care of the kids, not that they need it. "Thanks, North. I appreciate it." I shove the hand that doesn't hold the staff through my hair and then into my pocket to hide how badly it shakes. "Where are we going?"

"The Pole. Your new team will be waiting." North bursts into laughter at the sight of my shocked expression. "What? Do you think that you'll do this solo? Not a chance!" North shakes a snow globe and mutters, "North Pole."

I turn to walk away. "No way, North. I'm not working with some newbies. Call me when you decide to let me work with the professionals."

But North grabs my hood and tosses me into the portal. "Of course you are coming! Everyone is waiting!"


	3. Tooth and Toothless

Hiccup

I moan and roll over. Something as cold as ice hits my cheek and I'm jolted awake by the sudden chill. "What? Where am I?" Snow is everywhere, not a patch of green to be seen except for my shirt and Toothless's eyes. Oh, and the bird woman. I pull the small dagger from the sheath on my arm and point it at her. "Where have you brought me?"

She shivers but mostly just ignores me. I'm obviously no immediate threat to her. She has the flying goons on her side, after all. A few moments pass as she must be getting her bearings. "We're just outside the Pole. North's globes aren't always entirely accurate, but at least it didn't drop us in a hole. Your pet doesn't seem like he likes the cold much."

I look over at Toothless, who, even despite his size, is still a cold-blooded reptile who needs an outside source of heat. _Oh, no. _"Toothless!" With my hands under his chin, I help him to stand up, but I can tell he is close to falling over again. "You cursed fairy! He needs heat!"

Tooth nods. "There is a huge fireplace at the Pole. Come with me, and we can help him." She starts in the direction of a mountain of ice and snow.

"I don't see any place for a hundred miles that looks like it might even have wood for a fire! Let alone an actual fireplace!"

Tooth shakes her head and waves a hand at the mountain. "The Pole is just on the other side. It's huge, but we can't see it from here for all the snow."

I decide that Toothless and I can't possibly be worse off at the moment, so I let the bird with teeth lead us to this invisible mansion that she feels the need to describe for me as I help Toothless along in the knee-deep snow.

As we are nearing the peak of the mountain, Toothless spins around and shoots fire at something behind us. That's the last thing we need, Toothless wasting the last of his heat on an unknown snow creature. I whirl around. A boy with white hair is pointing a crooked staff covered in frost at Toothless. _Great. First the bird thing and now this guy is going to kill Toothless. Mark this up as one of the worst days ever. Right next to losing my foot and my dad. _Toothless charges with the last of his energy and is about to tear this new stranger apart.

A blast of ice erupts from the boy's staff, but Toothless manages to doge it the first time. Though I don't think he will again. As the boy aims for the next strike, I jump between him and Toothless. "Stop, please! Wait!"

The ice boy seems to be noticing me for the first time now. He seems to be almost surprised that I'm talking to him at all. "Who are you?" He screws up his face. "And more importantly, what is that thing?"

My chest heaves with a sigh I didn't know I was holding in. "My name is Hiccup, and this," I pause as I keep sucking in air, "is Toothless. He's my dragon, and I'd appreciate it if you put the stick away now." The words push each other out of my mouth like a dam breaking.

The boy lowers his staff. _Thank the gods. _But he still looks like he's ready to pounce. "You're that kid from Berk who saved those fire-breathing lizards with wings that always melt my snow." He seems overly-cocky for a guy who almost got eaten a few seconds ago. "Looks a little like your pet is out of his element here."

My brow wrinkles in anger, but I know the expression isn't at all as intimidating on me as it is… was on my father. "Watch it, frost giant." I look the boy up and down. "Or frost giant midget. You don't want to provoke the wrath of a Viking and his dragon."

The kid just laughs and waves to Toothiana, who has been watching the whole show in shocked silence. "The name's Frost, Jack Frost, and I'm no frost giant. I don't even know what that is. You on the other hand, you're the one out of line here." Jack points his staff at me and Toothless, who is shuddering, but he looks at Tooth. "What are they doing here? Don't tell me _this_ is who Manny wants me to work with."

Tooth shakes her head. "Not now, Jack. We have to get Toothless inside before he freezes." She pulls a golden whistle from the bag at her side. "Hiccup, if you keep Toothless calm, I'll call my fairies to carry him inside."

I mull over the decision in my head. Since our little traveling party doesn't seem to be getting anywhere fast, I nod and kneel down to Toothless's level. "Hey, bud. We're going to get some help to carry you inside ok?" The dragon's eyes are full of worry, but he nods in reply.

"Don't waste your fairies' energy, Tooth. The yetis will be down shortly to help our friend here." A huge man, not quite as big as Dad, saunters up in full-out fur. And yes, he even has a ridiculous beard. He's the first normal thing I've seen since this all started. "Welcome to the Pole, Hiccup. Sorry if Jack here scared you and your pet." The giant fixes Frost with a harsh glare. _Now _he_ can pull it off. Why can't I do that? Oh yeah, maybe it's the lack of the 200 plus pounds of weight. _"Jack got ahead of me when we landed here, wanted to check out the new team."

I tilt my head to the side. "Team?"

From around the corner of the slope that we have been walking towards, comes a team of hairy beasts as big as the very Viking-like man. They lift Toothless from the ground as if he's just a sack of potatoes, and while he struggles a little, it isn't much compared to their bulk. I watch as they carry him off, farther up the mountain. _Oh gods, this is a mess._

"Hiccup! Is nice to finally meet you!" Giant arms wrap around me and lift me from the ground. When the Viking in red sets me down again, I wheeze as I struggle to take a breath. "My name is North! Come! Let us go inside!"

I turn and fall, face first of course, into a snow drift as I try to follow the yetis with Toothless. "Oh why didn't I just stay in bed this morning?"


	4. The Bear Princess

Merida

"Getting tossed into a hole by an overgrown rabbit and being held against your will by a bunch of boggin' yetis could make any sane person a wee bit testy. Just imagine what it does to a moody Scottish princess why don't yah?" I chunk another toy at the beast who drug me here in the first place. "I wager you cannae imagine the frustration!" Another doll of some sort flies through the air and gives a satisfying _whack _when it hits Bunny's arm.

"Alright yah mangy mutt! Get over here, and I'll teach yah a lesson yah won't soon forget!" Bunny pulls out one of his boomerangs and chucks it in my direction. I dodge and wait for it to fly back, but it doesn't. A huge man all dressed in red and black holds the boomerang in his hand and stands in the doorway to the cellar where I managed to escape to before the rodent caught up with me.

"North!" the rabbit exclaims with a shaken look on his face. "I was just trying to get her back to the Main Hall!"

"Don't make me put you on Naughty List, Bunny." North turns his attention to the seething princess, me. "My apologies Ms. Merida. Bunny here is not the most hospitable Guardian."

"Aye," I shoot a glance at the rabbit, "he best be happy the yetis took my bow."

Bunny tries to play it cool and ignore the comment, but I can see the way his wee little nose twitches with anger. That gives me a great deal of satisfaction. North quickly explains that I am needed in the Main Hall for a very important meeting and hands me back my bow.

"Might as well." I follow the bulky man in the red, fur coat back into the Main Hall with the giant globe and fireplace. Everything about this castle seems big and full of wonder, including North who is obviously the King here, and now that I don't feel the need to run for my life, I can enjoy all the sights and sounds of this other world. "It looks like magic."

"It is, Merida." North stands beside me at the edge of the balcony as I peer down on the workshop. "Everything you see around you has magic. Even ordinary things. You are one of the special few that can see this. That is why you were chosen, why we were all chosen by Man in Moon." North puts a hand on my shoulder, and my eyes meet his. "You have something very special inside, Merida DunBroch."

A low moan sounds by the fireplace, and for the first time, something there draws my eye. A humongous black creature with leathery wings and a scaly hide is resting beside, or rather inside, the fire. Next to it sits a boy, tall and lanky. The boy is dressed in an odd assortment of armor and leather. I'm fascinated by the site of them until another boy, a little older in age and no larger in size but much paler with hair as white as snow.

He takes one look at me and hangs his head. "North, really? A girl?" The snob leans against a crooked staff and peers at me through skeptical eyes. "I mean, Tooth, she has wings and the army of bite-sized munchkins, but her?" He points his staff at me and laughs. "She won't last one minute against You-Know-Who."

_That's it. _In one swift motion, I raise my bow, draw an arrow, and fire at Pretty Boy's head. His eyes go wider than Mum's favorite plates imported from Asia. The arrow just misses as he darts out of the way, but it does sink into the wooden mantle of the fireplace, causing the other boy and his companion to turn their heads in my direction. The startled and severely irritated look on Pretty Boy's face is priceless, but I also notice the shock and admiration that shine in the other boy's eyes as well. "I'm Merida DunBroch, Princess of DunBroch. You will treat me respect and nothing short of it. Yah hear?"

North's laugh is like a clap of thunder over the moors, but to my own irritation, Pretty Boy smiles. "Nice to meet you, princess. I'm Jack Frost, Guardian of _Fun_." He points his precious staff in the direction of the smaller boy. "That's Burp and his dragon Brainless."

The dragon bares his teeth at Jack, but the boy pats the creature's head to calm him. Suddenly, I'm reminded of Angus and feel a twinge of pain for the friend I was forced to leave behind. "Hiccup, my name is Hiccup, and this is Toothless. It's nice to meet you Merida. You remind me of a girl from home." He doesn't seem to be talking to me anymore as much as he is to himself. I don't answer. Don't need to because someone else, some_thing _else flies into the room.

"Ah, Sandy! You have brought our other princess safely here! Well done, friend." North pats the little, golden man on the back as he pops out of the contraption he flew in on and helps down a beautiful girl in a pretty pink dress, something my Mum would love to see me dressed in. I notice though, with a little bit of satisfaction, that the girl is barefoot. _So much for Pretty Princess._

The golden contraption disappears and with it, the conversation in the room. Everyone is silent as we stare down the others. Hiccup stands to his feet beside Toothless. Frost looks as cocky as ever. North, Sandy, and a large bird all stand in the corner with my friend the Easter Bunny, whatever that is. And the Pink Princess stands in the middle of it all, clearly uncomfortable.

"Hi," she murmurs, "I'm Rapunzel."

"Gesundheit," Jack muses.

Toothless jumps to his feet and the girl yelps, pulling a… _Is that a frying pan? _She points the pan at the dragon and backs away to hide behind a high-backed chair, clearly meant to seat North. "Aw, wee lamb," I snicker, and suddenly, I feel as though I have Jack's respect, or at least his momentary admiration based on the wiggling of eyebrows in my general direction.

"Rimsky-Korsakov! You children are about as close to social butterflies as a nest of angry hornets!" North places his meaty hands on his hips and stares around at the rag-tag group of teenagers. "This is not going to be easy."

"Aye," I shout.


	5. Finding Frost

Rapunzel

I look around the room at all these people, people who are arguing louder than some of the thugs at the Snugly Duckling. Obviously the large man is Santa Clause or North, as the other Guardians call him. The fairy is Toothiana or Tooth for short. I guess they call the Easter Bunny, Bunny. And then there is my little friend, Sandy, who stands beside me now and pats my hand in an effort to keep me calm.

I hear other names thrown around, and I infer that neither of the boys would be called Merida. So I associate the name with the fiery, Scottish girl. And if the name Jack Frost fits anyone in the room besides North, it'll be the boy with the white hair and frost on his jacket. Therefore last, and quite honestly, least, is the guy named Hiccup. The name makes me smile, but his giant reptile is a far jump from my Pascal.

The loudest of them all, despite her size, is Merida. "Shut it!" Everyone falls silent and all eyes fall on her. She doesn't handle the attention seamlessly as a princess should, but soon after, she straightens her shoulders a bit more. "I… I have questions, and I want them answered." Before anyone says anything, she makes one more demand. "And Jack has to keep his yapper shut."

Bunny chuckles a bit and seems to approve, but if my guesses are right, his busted lip and bloody nose had to have come from her. "What are your questions, princess?"

Merida grips her hands at her sides. "I want to know where I am. I want to know why I am here. And I want to know when I can get back to my family." Her rough, Scottish accent is gone, and replaced by something softer, sweeter. _So she _has_ had some training to be a proper princess._ "I concur with, Merida. There are some questions that have not been answered."

North nods solemnly and takes the floor from Merida. "There is villain, called Pitch Black. From ancient times, it has been his burden to carry the fears of the world. You see, there must be balance between the light and the dark. Pitch was put into the world in order to create balance, but he wants power. And he is prepared to fight for it." North gestures to the other Guardians and Jack. "Five years ago, we sent Pitch back under the bed, but he has resurfaced this time with team of his own. There are three so far: Mor'du," I see Merida visibly stiffen even more, "Mother Gothel," my heart stops, "and an unknown threat who we believe has attacked Hiccup's village."

Hiccup steps forward. "A dragon?"

Bunny puts his hands up to keep Hiccup from saying more. "Maybe, mate. We don't know much of anything yet."

"But Mor'du…" Merida looks terrified. "He was killed! I saw it with my own eyes."

I almost drop my frying pan. "And Mother Gothel, I thought she was…"

Tooth places a hand on my shoulder. "We don't have all the answers, Rapunzel. We're sorry, but we can tell you why you've been brought here." Toothiana gestures to the window where the moon shines through. "The Man in the Moon has chosen the three of you to be Guardians. In order to form a new squad of Guardians, there must be four. You, Merida, Hiccup, and Jack will be the new Four that will face Pitch and his allies. That is why we brought you here. You have to help us."

Silence falls over the group again. Only the tinkering of yetis can be heard along with the deep breaths of conflicted souls. Hiccup is the next to speak up. "And when can we return home?"

North swallows. "We do not know. After you defeat Pitch, you are free to go where you wish. But if you wish to be Guardian, there are certain responsibilities that you must uphold."

Merida stamps her foot. "And what if we don't want to be a Guardian?"

North crosses his arms. "You, Merida DunBroch, are a natural Guardian. You went to great lengths to save your mother from the curse that was put upon her. You convinced your father to believe in magic and changed the customs of your kingdom. Hiccup," he gestures to the small Viking, "saved all of the people of his village by defeating the king and queen of all dragons. He was one of the first to ride a dragon, the first to train dragons." He turns to me. "And Rapunzel faced all odds in order to find her dream and save the one she loved."

Tooth motions to the four-pointed star on the floor. Each of the points holding a picture of a Guardian. "You see, we were all chosen because of something we have done in our pasts, and that is what makes us Guardians. However, in your case, you are still alive. We were all saved from death so that we could become Guardians. We don't know what the Man in the Moon intends for the three of you, but we can assure you that it is your choice to become an official Guardian. For now, we only ask for your aid in bringing down Pitch and the others."

Bunny leans against the mantle, painting an egg. "So who's up for it, aye?"

My grip on the frying pan tightens. "I'll do it."

Hiccup nods and pats Toothless on the head. "If it will rid my village of this new monster, I'll do it, too."

Merida shrugs and grasps her bow in both hands, her most comfortable stance. "Alright, I guess I'll be joining you all then."

We all look to see Jack's reaction, but in the place where Jack was standing, there is nothing but a frozen elf. Bunny groans. "Alright everyone. Let's find him."

Nearly two hours later, the winter spirit is nowhere to be found. "Jack? Um, Jack Frost?" I sigh and lean against the wall of the Pole before sitting down on the stone floor. All the Guardians are out searching the globe for him, and the rest of us are forced to hang around this place looking for Jack or sitting around. "Jack, please. We should get to work."

"I don't do work much." Jack stands over me, and I don't bother to wonder where he came from. "So, you wanted to see me?" He chuckles and sits down beside me, honestly a bit too close for comfort.

"I don't understand you, Jack." I get up and start to walk away, but the boy grabs my hand.

"Your name is Rapunzel, right?" He gets in front of me, blocking my exit. "Look, I have no problem with killing Pitch and any of his would-be helpers. I joined the Guardians because I want to protect children, but I didn't sign up to babysit a bunch of newbies."

I smile and nod. "Alright then. That's only fair. But, as I recall, you were once a newbie yourself. You wanted someone to believe in you, Jack. Maybe you could give us a chance and believe in us?"

Jack seems purely shocked for a moment, his jaw drops. But little by little he smiles, and it creates a startlingly warm feeling inside me, especially for the Prince of Frost. "Alright, Blondie. But you only get one shot. After that, I make no promises." He winks at me, and I chuckle a little. I just wish he hadn't called me Blondie.


	6. Lost Legs

Hiccup

I try not to stare as Merida carves a picture into her bow. She's already added three pictures since we gave up looking for Frost. Toothless is warm enough to wander around the Hall now, and I'm fairly certain he'll be good as new within the hour. The elves gather around Toothless and start prodding him with tiny fingers. I'm about to race in to save them from being roasted, but Toothless handles them rather well.

"Your dragon is really rather tame, isn't he?" Merida points to Toothless as he licks one of the elves. "I'd imagine Angus, that's my horse, would've tried to eat at least one of 'em by now."

I twiddle my thumbs and glance up at her eyes. They're as blue as a midday, summer sky. I swallow and try not to say anything stupid. "Yeah, he's no ordinary dragon." I shrug. "But they mostly only eat fish anyway. Not eels though. They hate eels. Makes them sick."

Merida chortles. "Imagine that, a feverish dragon!"

I glance at Toothless out of the corner of my eye. "Yeah, well sick dragons are quite the danger, I'll say. Almost lost my last good foot when Toothless here ate an eel to save me." Toothless flops down onto the floor and pins some elves underneath him. He raises his head and laughs. The elves jingle like a chorus of sleigh bells, trying to get out from under him.

"How did yah lose your foot anyway?" Merida crosses her legs, rests an elbow on each knee, and lays her chin in her hands. I'm not getting out of this. She wants a story, and Merida tends to get what she wants, as far as I can tell.

"Well, before the other Vikings learned that dragons weren't all bad, my dad took Toothless and set out to find the dragon nest, which only a dragon can find. Toothless, against his will, lead a fleet of Vikings to the island where the nest was. I hitched a ride with another dragon and got there just in time to see that a huge dragon, big as a mountain, was baring down on the Vikings. Dad helped me to rescue Toothless from a sinking ship, and I rode him high into the sky, drawing the dragon behind. Just as the beast was about to fire, I turned Toothless around and fired into the monsters throat. It ignited and the dragon blew up in a fiery inferno. I tried to get out of the way in time, but the prosthetic that I made for Toothless's tail caught fire, and we fell into the blast. Toothless, he saved me," I look down at the metal attached to my leg, "most of me, that is."

Merida looks astounded, and I attempt a smile. She laughs and shakes her head. "That's even crazier than how my dad lost his leg to the demon bear Mor'du!" Abruptly Merida's face grows serious as she remembers that she could be facing the very same bear in a manner of hours. "I thought he was dead. Tragic story, that. I met a witch who turned my mum into a bear so I wouldn't have to get married, and we had to face Mor'du. And my da' almost killed Mum because he thought she was a real bear. Ah, I'll tell yah later." Merida smiles and taps her fingers on her knees. "So…"

North and Tooth burst into the Hall with Rapunzel and Frost following not far behind. "Bunny has spotted Pitch in Scotland. Merida," She is already on her feet.

"I'm coming with you." There's no arguing with her.

North looks at me, and I nod. "I can take someone with me on Toothless." The dragon looks up at the sound of his name, and he trots over in a hurry, throwing elves left and right. I swing a leg over and lock my feet in place.

North smiles. "Merida, ride ahead with Tooth and Hiccup. I'll take Jack, Rapunzel, and Sandy in the sleigh. Tooth," he tosses one of those infernal slow globes at Toothiana, "we must hurry."

Merida hops on Toothless as if this is just another ride on a horse. "Let's get to it, then."

_Oh gods. We're going to die._

**Hi! SIM. J. here, just want to say thanks for ready the fanfic, and feel free to review! I'm new to the site so I'd love some tips! That and it's fun to hear from you guys. Just wait to see what Pitch has up his dark, brooding sleeve this time!**


	7. Learning on the Job

Jack

We land in Scotland not long after Hiccup, Merida, and Tooth. The sleigh hits the ground with a violent crash. You'd think after almost five hundred years, North would be better at landing this thing. Rapunzel leaps out of the sleigh. "That was amazing!" She scampers over to the reindeer. "They're so adorable!" It looks as though this princess is finally back in her element.

North tosses a sack at me, where it came from I'll never know. "These are some gifts from Man in Moon. When you find Pitch and defeat him, report back to the Pole. If worse comes to worse, come back anyway. The elves are making cookies." North grips the reigns and Tooth climbs in along with Bunny. Sand man waves goodbye.

"You're leaving us here?" _I can't believe this. These newbies are going to be Pitch-chow._

"This is trial run, Jack. Have our new friends learn on the job. Have fun. Don't lose." The sleigh takes off, and we are left alone in a clearing bordered by tall rock formations. I turn to Merida and Hiccup.

"Ok, so North left us with these." I rummage in the bag and pull out a blue contraption that unfolds to be half of a dragon's tail, like the red one that Toothless wears. I toss it to Hiccup, but I keep the note attached and read it aloud. "Fireproof."

We all watch, totally fascinated, as Hiccup attaches the equipment to the dragon's tail. "Fits perfect. Who did you say this was from again?"

"Man in the Moon," I mutter and pull the next thing from the bag. A blue and silver quiver full of arrows. Merida walks over and seizes the quiver, strapping it to her back alongside the other that she already carried. "The Never-ending Quiver," I read, "never runs out of arrows."

Merida's eyes grow wide and a wicked smirk grows on her face. "Impressive."

"The bag's empty." I look up at Rapunzel. She doesn't seem surprised.

She twiddles with her golden hair that reaches all the way to the ground. "My hair is my gift. It can heal people when I sing this song. It got cut before and lost its power, but the Man in the Moon gave it back so I could heal the people of my kingdom." She lets it drop from her careful fingers, and I begin to notice the soft, silver highlights that shimmer amongst the gold. "I tried to cut it after… but it just grows back again. But I haven't brought anyone back from the dead since before. I've tried. It doesn't work the same."

An awkward silence falls over the group. _How are we supposed to find Pitch anyway? _Then I remember that if anyone knows how to track something in this area its…

"Alright then. Obviously I'm in charge at the moment." Merida pulls a hood over her mass of tangles. "Follow me. Bunny said that he saw Mor'du lurking around the woods out here. I've got a… friend who might can help us find him. Does anyone have anything valuable that we could possibly trade with?"

Rapunzel removes the signet ring on her finger and hands it to Merida. "Will this do?"

Merida nods. "Keep it for now, but we have to move." With bow drawn and ready to fire, Merida leads us into the woods. I keep my staff up, ready to strike if something should come charging out of the woods. Hiccup hovers overhead on Toothless, keeping a watchful eye. Rapunzel keeps close and practices tossing and spinning her frying pan around. I try my best not to snicker when she hits herself in the head. Merida gives a long, low whistle, the signal for Hiccup to land. Toothless hits the ground just ahead of us next to a cottage that seems about half-built. "This is where the witch lives."

"Witch?" The rest of us voice question at the same time.

Merida turns to us and groans. "Oh please, don't tell me your afraid of a little witch now are yah?" She smiles and giggles, but the joke is wasted on us. "Come on then." She walks over to the door of the cottage and knocks. "Hello, Mrs. Witch? It's me, the red-haired lass!"

A grouchy, growling voice comes from inside the cottage. "Go away! You blew up my house last time yah came through here!"

Merida seems to have expected as much. "I've got payment!"

The door opens and an revolting old woman walks out. "I hope your friends aren't as poorly behaved as you are, princess. Come inside, come inside, but don't touch anything unless you're prepared to buy it."

As we step inside, my only reaction is. "Wow." This lady is really obsessed with bears and wood carving. "What is all of this?"

"My latest work," the old bat says, opening a back door in the shop. "Come through here. I haven't had time to imbue the door with magic so I use my back room for conjuring now. Thanks to the young lassie here."

Merida rolls her eyes and follows the witch into the back room. The rest of us aren't quite as trusting. "We'll stay out here, if you don't mind." Hiccup is still by the door. "I want to keep an eye on Toothless." Merida shrugs and closes the door to the conjuring room behind her.

"Jack," Rapunzel is sitting cross-legged on the floor, "what are we going to do when we find Mor'du or Pitch or…" Her voice trails off, but I get the idea.

I motion for Hiccup to join us. "Pitch is scary, but he's a diva. Whatever he does, he likes to make a show of it. We can use that to our advantage. If we can lure him out with a single person, and have the others hiding around, I can get him talking, and the rest of you attack when I give a signal."

Hiccup scratches his slightly hairy chin. "Are you sure he'll come find you? And what about the others with him?" Hiccup makes a point of diverting his eyes to Rapunzel, and I glance down at her.

Her eyes have gone wide, and I can guess that she's thinking about Mother Gothel, the woman who kidnapped her so long ago. Tooth told us the tale, since picking up gossip is easy when you have a bunch of little ears to spread around the globe. I grip my staff at the thought of someone dragging Rapunzel away. "I want you to focus on your dragon thing. We don't know who or what it is. I'll take care of Gothel and Pitch if I can. I'm sure Merida can handle Mor'du. She has before."

Just as I say this, the back door of the cabin swings open, and Merida marches out with a potion in her hands. "Alright then, let's go find Pitch."


	8. Welcome to the Crafty Carver

Merida

"It's nice to have yah back, little lass." The witch turns to me and smiles. I haven't been by to visit since I set out looking for the new Mor'du, and I can tell that she has missed the company. She doesn't get much obviously. "What is that yah be needing today?"

I collapse into one of the chairs around her cauldron. "I need three things. First off, I want yah to send a message to Mum and Dad. Tell them that I'm still tracking that beast, and that I've got some help. But I won't be back for a while. Can yah do that for me?"

The witch settles into a rocking chair nearby and leans back, her crow perched beside her head. "Of course, lassie. And the other two things?"

I set Rapunzel's signet ring on the table, just as an insurance that my "friend" doesn't decide to get crafty with me. "I want a spell to find Mor'du."

The witch sits up suddenly. "Mor'du? But I thought you and your mum killed the beasty! Why would you want to be finding him?"

"There have been sightings of a bear, one much like Mor'du. Are you saying that there could be another bear-man?" I stand up and point to her cauldron. "I thought we had an agreement!"

The witch puts up her hands in defense. "Let me explain, lassie! Please, I had to."

I draw my dagger and point it at the gaffy witch. "Explain, fast, now. Do you know how many people's lives you've put at risk?"

The witch gets up and starts pouring things into her cauldron. On the surface of the boiling concoction, I see what appears to be the witch's memory of the situation in question. A man with gray skin and black hair is standing in the witches door. "This man, Pitch Black he called himself, waltzed into my shop just the other day and demanded the spell that I used on Mor'du, said he wanted to curse someone with it. Some prince or something. I told him that I had sworn never to cast such a spell ever again, but he would not hear it. He told me that if I didn't give him the spell then he would make all my worst fears come true." The shriveled old woman stares into the distance, her eyes seeing something that I can't. "I couldn't let that happen. So I gave him the curse, but I what didn't tell him was that this spell, unlike the others, was broken by an act of true love. If you can find the poor, cursed prince's true love. Your bear problems will be solved."

_That could be almost anyone, but at least it's something to go on. If we can get knowledge of a prince who has gone missing, we can knock Pitch down a peg. _"Alright, I guess I'll forgive yah. But there is one more thing that I want to know." I press both hands onto the table beside her cauldron, still clutching the knife, and lean my weight against them. "Have you ever heard of the Guardians? The Man in the Moon, perhaps?"

The witch smiles. "I knew that Frost fellow looked familiar." She pulls a small book from one of her shelves. "I think this will hold the answers you're searching for, dearie. It'll do the trick."

As I take the book from her, a nervous laugh escapes my chest. "You've said that before, and I ended up turning my mum into a bear."

She chortles and taps the book. "Don't yah be worrying now. That'll only answer your questions. It depends on what you do with the information as to whether it'll lead yah to your fate."

"I thought I found my fate."

The witch shakes her head with a nasty smile. "Oh child, yah have a lot more living to do, a lot more fates to find and change if you're brave enough." I turn to leave, but the witch's crow finally speaks up.

"Say, yah ever find yah a suitor in all this time?"

I turn to the scruffy, black bird and make a face. "Of course not. Marriage is still marriage."

The witch bursts into peels of wicked laughter. "Oh, isn't that the truth!"

It only takes a few minutes for the witch to create a tracking spell. "The hard thing is to decide who you want to track. After that, hold the person's image in your mind, whisper their name into the bottle, and it will lead yah to what you're looking for." Merida takes the bottle from the witch and thanks her. "There is a catch, however. The spell only works in the dark, so once the sun comes up, you won't be able to see the trail of magic to follow."

I nod. "Fair enough. Thanks for the help." I walk into the room beyond, and Jack and Punzie are on their feet, looking very nervous. "What's wrong? She didn't turn me into a bear, did she?"

Rapunzel shakes her head. "Hiccup and Toothless have disappeared."


	9. Nightmares

Rapunzel

I take Merida's hand and pull her outside. "We heard a big ruckus outside after Hiccup went to check on Toothless, and then we saw this." She steps aside, and I see the smoking bushes and burning trees. I can't be sure who did this, but it doesn't look good, especially when we don't know where Hiccup is.

Jack floats over to the smoldering tree closest to us. He grips his hands at his sides. "I swear, if he bailed on us, I'll freeze something vital."

"We should use the spell to find him. He might've been attacked." One of my hands grip my pan, the other twiddles with my hair, a nervous habit that I've never been able to shake.

Jack merely shakes his head. "No way. I'm not wasting this on Hiccup. We have to find Pitch."

I point my frying pan in the direction of the smoking foliage. "If he flew out on us, why would he try to burn down the forest? Something must've attacked him. We need to find him!"

The knuckles of Jack's hand turn white, or whiter, on his staff. I expect it to snap in two, but just before it does, Jack sighs and flops onto a nearby stump. "Your vote, Merida. What are we going to do?"

Merida has been fixated on a faraway thought. She doesn't react immediately, and as we wait, the tension in the air grows insanely thick. I can feel it pressing in around us as time drags on. Merida uncaps the top of the bottle and closes her eyes. I scan the sky; the sun is retreating from view fast. I'm about to wonder whose name she'll say when suddenly her lips are moving, and the name grazes across the mouth of the bottle, and a luminous vapor rises and streaks out into the woods as it steadily grows darker. Merida shoulders her quivers and marches on, swinging her arms at her sides and following the glowing trail. "Let's go find Hiccup then."

Hiccup

"Come on, bud, higher!" Toothless climbs into the sky, shooting like an arrow through the clouds. Those black demons continue to chase us. _Of course they can fly. Because it just wouldn't be nearly as interesting if they couldn't. _"Alright, Toothless. Time to fight back." I lean into a sharp, left turn. As soon as the beasts come into view, Toothless starts to fire. Most of the horses explode and spit black sand all over me. "Oh, gross!"

But there are too many of the flying horses to fire at, and we're out of time. The mares surround us and seem to pop up out of nowhere as my fear grows to new heights. Suddenly, Toothless dives and leaves my stomach in the air, but it throws off the mares long enough to give us some elbow room. Green grass and rocks race toward us, closer and closer and closer, but I don't pull up until the very last second. After we veer away from sudden death, I chance a look behind us. "Yes!" The horses face plant and rapidly turn into a pile of black sand.

Toothless lands as agile as a cat on the ground. I slump forward in the saddle, letting the adrenaline in my blood cool down. "I must say, that was rather impressive. You show a lot of potential."

A jolt runs up my spine and forces me to a sitting position. "Who's there?" Toothless's hind quarters swing around, and he backs away from the unseen threat. "Who are you?"

A dark figure slides out of the woods, comes towards us, and gestures to the pile of sand behind us. "I see you handled my nightmares with great skill, but why are you here, Hiccup? Why do you care about the Guardians? It's not as if the Man in the Moon chose you for any special reason."

I grip the saddle and try not to panic. "Something attacked my village. The Guardians seem to think you were involved, Pitch." _This guy has "creepy" written all over him. No wonder the Guardians don't want him walking around._

Pitch grins, and I gulp when I see that his teeth are pointed like a dragon's. "A good friend of yours wanted to pay you a visit, Hiccup. It would be rude of you to send him off without a proper greeting."

"A 'friend'? What are you talking about?"

Something or someone emerges from the woods behind Pitch. "Don't you recognize him, Hiccup?"

Blood pounds in my ears, and my heart tries to beat its way out of my ribcage. _I thought that thing was only a bad dream. How could it be here? How could it be real? _"Come on, Toothless!" The dragon takes off quick as lightning, as fast as the beat of my heart.

Pitch just laughs. "Get me that dragon." The thing next to Pitch takes off into the sky, leaving a trail of black sand.

Jack

My nerves are on fire, and every twig that snaps underneath my feet force my heart into my throat. All the birds become nightmares, and every dead tree looks like Pitch. By the time I've frozen eight squirrels and a bush or two, Rapunzel places a hand on my shoulder. "Jack? Maybe I could carry your staff? Just for now?" She reaches for it, but I snatch it away. I remember what happened the last time someone took my staff from me. "Please, you're so high-strung. You're going to hurt somebody."

She stares at me. _Those eyes! _I squeeze mine shut and try to forget how open she looks, how kind and good, how easily breakable. "I'm fine, Blondie."

She visibly flinches. "Please don't call me that." Her feet stumble on an exposed root, but I grab her before she falls. "Only one person has ever called me that," she brushes my hand from her shoulder, "and that person is gone now. You may call me Rapunzel."

I laugh and roll my eyes. "Alright, alright." My staff spins and flips in my hands as I am all of a sudden able to carry it a bit more loosely. "You're cute, Punzie. Hey, Mer! Any signs of the dwarf and his gecko?"

"None, but the trail keeps going that way. I know these woods, and there can only be one thing in that direction." She groans and throws her head back. "I know where we're going, in other words."

"Where?" Rapunzel keeps weaving her hair into elaborate braids, but her hands have started to shake.

"The ruins of an old kingdom."Merida draws an arrow and nods her head up the path. "Yah can already see the tops of what buildings are left. Mor'du used to live here. Yah were right, Punzie. Hiccup must've been attacked." She snorts. "No other reason anyone would want to go there."

I shake my head and take off into the sky. "Sun's almost up. If we don't find Hiccup soon, it'll be too late. Stay here, and I'll follow the trail."

An arrow whizzes past my head, and I yelp. "Are you crazy?" But I turn and see an onslaught of nightmares heading in my direction. A sly smiles spreads across my lips. "Finally, let's have some fun!"

**And now things start to get really interesting... Review please and thank you!**


	10. The Dragon Rider

Merida

"Here come the nightmares, ladies! Have fun, and I'll find Hiccup!"

"Are you out of your mind, Frost? Get back here!" I fire another arrow as a lone nightmare breaks through the trees, and it crumbles. "Punzel, get ready. Hit hard and fast. These things bust if yah hit 'em hard enough!"

Rapunzel yelps as another three nightmares dart onto the path, and the battle begins. She holds her own, for the most part, but as more and more nightmares pour onto the trail, even I can't keep up. "Frost, where are you?"

"Stand down," a gravelly voice calls from behind. Or is it to my left? My right? I spin, trying to find the source of the command. As I do, the nightmares back away from me and Rapunzel. Punzie herself scampers over to me like a scared puppy. "Nice to finally meet you, ladies. I've heard so much about you!"

I draw an arrow, but I still don't know where to aim. "Who are you?"

"My name is Pitch Black, Merida. You know me. I visit you every night." A chuckle rises from the trees around us, mocking the fact that I, the best tracker in all the lands, cannot find him. It sets my blood on fire. "And, Rapunzel, I visit you even during the daytime. You'll never be able to escape me, dear." Rapunzel swallows and ducks her head. "Now, for the real reason I'm here," Pitch steps out of the trees, and I loose the arrow without a second thought. But before it meets its target, he disappears, "I want the two of you on my side. You'll never win fighting like this. In fact, what are you even fighting for?"

Something in his voice brakes though the anger, and at first, I don't know what to call it. Then it hits me. Fear. _What _am _I here for? Pitch's scheme may have nothing to do with me. He may only care about the Guardians, and they haven't exactly been total darlings to me thus far. _I lower my bow. "I don't aim to join anyone. I just want to protect my people."

Pitch emerges again from the shadows as the sun breaks over the tops of the trees. "Fair enough. I understand." He seems to be thinking something over. "I just can't have you two interfering with my plans." Pitch extends a hand towards us, but I make no move. "You, Merida, should return to your family. They need you to protect them from other things."

I'm about to put away my arrow and turn back when Rapunzel takes a step towards Pitch and raises her pan. "Don't listen to him, Merida. He's dangerous, and he won't spare your family when he brings fear to every child alive. Don't you have a little brother or sister?" She glances at me, and I see something in her face that surprises me. She's being dead serious, and she isn't afraid. She turns back to Pitch. "I've read about you, Pitch, and I will not let you hurt the children of my kingdom."

Pitch seems flabbergasted. The last person, it seems, that he expected to talk back was little Punzie. "Fine, help the Guardians, Flower Child, but I will bring fear. And you will pay dearly for your defiance." His eyes shift to me. "Both of you will, along with your families." Pitch drops into the shadows of the trees as the sun drives them towards us.

My jaw drops. _What have I done?_

Hiccup

"Oh, gods no. Please you can't do this! You can't be real! Just go away!" I cringe as my back meets a stone wall, and I know that the beast has me pinned. I put my hands up in front of my face. "You're not real. You're not real."

"I am real, Hiccup. I am Ignis. I am your worst nightmare." The growling, scratching voice of the dragon/man grates against my eardrums.

"Oh, wow. Really?" Someone snickers behind Ignis. "That's the best you can do?" Ignis and I both look behind him to see Jack walking around and chanting in a low voice, "I am Ignis. I am your worst nightmare. I am Ignis. I am your worst nightmare."

Ignis's burning eyes turn back to me. His entire body is made of black sand like the other nightmares but in the shape of a man with wings. He looks just like he did in my dreams when he was trying to break Toothless's wings, strangle me, or even kill my mom. "This is not over, human. You will never escape my sight."

I swallow and pray that Jack plans to do more than just dance around and taunt this thing. "What do you want?" But before I get an answer, Ignis takes off through the open roof and disappears. I clutch my chest and sigh. Then I remember losing Toothless in the ruble when we fell through the roof of this castle/crumbling-rock-pile. "Toothless!"

Jack stands back as I run past him to the giant pile of debris. Once he sees that I'm digging for Toothless, he joins in and we clear the rocks away in no time. We manage to get Toothless's head uncovered before two giant green eyes stare up at me. "Oh, Toothless. You're alive."

Toothless gets one glimpse of Jack and bares his teeth. "Ok, ok I'm leaving," Jack backs away. As I unearth the rest of Toothless, Jack starts asking questions. "So, what was that thing?"

"Ignis, he's half man and half dragon."

"Where did it come from?"

"My nightmares."

Jack prods me with his staff, and I chunk a rock behind me, hoping it hits him. It doesn't. He chunks it back. "How did you dream up something that freaky?"

I moan and use all my weight to yank away a large boulder. When it finally rolls out of the pile, the rest of the pile cascades off of Toothless. "I've had a rough and violent childhood, ok?"

Jack snorts and pokes me again. "Alright then, Lizard Boy. Time to go." Jack floats a couple feet off of the floor and gestures to the sky. "We have to go make sure the girls are still alive."

I roll onto Toothless and pat his head as Jack soars out of earshot. "I promise, boy. As soon as we're done here, I'll let you eat him, and then we'll go home. How does that sound?"

I know that Toothless doesn't know many human facial expressions, but I swear, in that moment, he smirked.

Jack

We find the girls right where I left them. It seems that they've fought off all the nightmares, but something must be wrong because Merida is maliciously assaulting a tree with her sword. Rapunzel, on the other hand, is sitting off to the side drawing in the dirt with a stick. She looks up when we drop into the clearing, but Merida continues to slice the tree into wood chips.

"Uh… Mer?" When she turns around and her eyes focus on me, I know immediately that I should've given her the time to cool off because the first thing she does is come after me with the sword.

"Why did yah have to bring me into this madness? Now Pitch is going to go after my brothers!" She swings the sword with amazing skill and ferocity, but I manage to dodge the first few assaults. "Yah daft, no-good," she pauses and then screams. "I hate yah immortal soul, Jack Frost!"

I leap into the air, jaw dropping and gasping as the last swing cuts open the front of my hoodie. Hiccup draws closer to Merida very slowly. "Please, Merida, Pitch brought us into this, not Jack. Pitch made the new Mor'du, and he saved Mother Gothel. And… and," Hiccup takes a deep breath, and Merida stops staring at me like she wants to rip me to shreds, "and he brought my nightmare to life." Hiccup puts his hands up and walks closer to Merida. She turns to him, and she doesn't slice him to ribbons, yet. "I know you're upset, but the only thing to do now is to stop him before he can hurt anyone."

_Hiccup is taming her. He is trying to calm her down like he does with Toothless. _I smirk.

"We need to work together to get this done, ok?" Hiccup rests his hand on top of Merida's where hers grasps the sword, and he pushes the blade down and away from me.

Merida drops the sword. "Fine." She pushes her bangs out of her face and takes a deep breath. "What do we do now?"

Rapunzel gets up and walks over. "Well, what does Pitch want exactly?" They all look up at me.

I drop to the ground and prop on my staff. "Pitch wants people to fear him. Most people can't even see him though."

Toothless nudges Hiccup, and the boy bends down to the dragon's level. "Ignis, the flying-man-dragon-nightmare thing, he tried to take Toothless. Why would Pitch want my dragon?"

I watch the way Hiccup strokes Toothless's head, and I remember that Pitch likes to take away what people love most. "He wanted to take what you love. Last time, for Tooth it was her fairies, for Bunny it was smashing the Easter eggs, and he even killed Sandy. Pitch wants to shake us up and break us."

Rapunzel nods and rubs her frying pan. "That's why he threatened your brothers, Merida."

Merida sets her jaw, her eyes burning with that familiar fire. "If we know where he'll try to strike, we can be prepared. I can send a message to my dad to protect the boys. We won't take our eyes off of Toothless." She pauses and glances at me and Rapunzel. "So what about you two?"

I shrug. "There are some kids back home, but they know how to fight Pitch. Worry about Punzie. She has an actual family."

Rapunzel shakes her head. "I know why Pitch is using Mother Gothel. He knows that she wants me back and will do anything to get me."

Something in my chest squeezes. "You think they'll try to take you?" She nods and looks up at the rest of us through her eyelashes. I grip my staff. "Fine, we won't let that happen. Come on. We should get back to the Pole."

Merida screws up her face. "Can Toothless carry three people?"

Hiccup starts to answer, "He_ did_ carry me and my dad once…"

But I interrupt. "I'll take Punzie with me." Before anyone else can say another word, I wrap an arm around Rapunzel's waist and take off.

Merida snorts. "I knew it," she mutters matter-of-factly as she hops on Toothless.

Hiccup cocks an eyebrow. "Knew what?"

Merida just laughs and shakes her head. "Boys."


	11. Breaking the Ice

Rapunzel

I stop screaming eventually, and once I do, I'm amazed by what I see. Rolling green hills fly past underneath us before the hills give way to glistening, glimmering blue. A shimmering copy of the sky is splayed beneath my feet, and I gasp. Even after I left my tower far behind, I've still never truly been out to sea. "I'll be twenty soon," I murmur, "but I've never seen much. I was locked away in a tower most of my life with only Mother Gothel and Pascal to keep me company. And, after Eugene died, I still didn't want to go anywhere. It reminded me of him because he took me on my first adventure."

Jack doesn't answer for a long while, but when he does, he surprises me with how serious he has become. "You can't run away from life because you lost him. I was invisible to almost everyone for 300 years, and I never want to be alone again."

I can't see his eyes from where I am, but I wish I could. "He was my new dream. After he was gone, I didn't want to find a new one no matter how much grieving I went through."

Jack shifts his hold on me. "Maybe you shouldn't let your dreams rely on a single person. People will change or let you down. Dream bigger than that."

There is a long silence before I have the courage to speak again. "What's your dream, Jack?"  
He doesn't hesitate like I thought he might. "To protect children. To be a Guardian."

"Do you think I could be a Guardian?" The question is so quiet that I don't think he hears me over the wind in our ears.

"Yes." His grip on me tightens. "You'd make a very good Guardian."

I take a deep breath of the clean, salty air. "Then I want that to be my new dream." Now more than ever I want to see his eyes. I want to see the confirmation in them, that I've made the right choice.

Merida

Toothless chirps as Hiccup leans us into another loop, and I laugh out loud. "This is amazing!"

"At Berk there are hundreds of dragons. You could pick out a dragon of your own, and I could teach you to ride if you want." Hiccup glances at me nervously.

I spread my arms out to either side and close my eyes. "Sounds great. Yah get to fly all the time?"

"Yeah, it's awesome. We fly all over the island and discover new dragons, and we protect the island from invaders called Outcasts. Lately I've been adding onto our map, discovering new places." Hiccup stops talking, and I open my eyes. He looks like someone just dropped a half-eaten, raw fish in his lap. "Am I bugging you?"

I shake my head. "Tell me your story, Hiccup."

He smiles. Toothless slaps him in the head with one of his big, black ears, and Hiccup turns around. "Well Berk is twelve days North of hopeless and a few degrees South of freezing to death. It's located solemnly on the meridian of misery…"

Jack

We get back to the Pole before Hiccup and Merida. North calls me into his office so that I can update him on what happened. "Jack, tell me, what did you learn?"

"North, you're not my shrink. I didn't learn some great life lesson, ok?" I trace frost patterns on his windows absentmindedly.

North, the gentle, walking mountain, crashes down beside me on the bench. "Jack, don't become what you were before you were Guardian." He ponders my frost patterns which are starting to look like a person, a person with very long hair. I rub over it with my sleeve.

I stare up at North with a cold, hard look. "What do you mean?"

North motions to the multi-layered doll that I know so well. "Don't forget that other people need your center. You cannot hide it under layers of cold outer-shell. You must open up to other people and let them," he pokes me in the chest, and we chuckle, "break through the ice."

I cringe. "Not a great metaphor, North." I smile up at him, and the look in his eyes is so warm that I try to look away casually and change the subject before something bad happens. "Are you trying to get me to make friends, North?" North's giant eyes widen a bit more, and as he laces his bushy eyebrows together, I burst into laughter and roll off the bench. "Wow. Well now I know what I'm getting for Christmas! Hiccup, Merida, and Punzie all gift-wrapped and topped with bows underneath my tree!"

A chuckle rises from Santa's throat. "Don't be ridiculous, Jack. You are back on top of Naughty List!" He pauses, and on a more serious note says, "You must get friends for yourself." I look down at my bare feet and sigh. There is a knock at the door. "Hold up!" I fly over to the door and open it a little. Rapunzel's green eyes stare up at me, and suddenly my heart flutters. _Am I blushing? Is that even possible? _I get my answer when I feel the heat rise to my cheeks and Rapunzel stifles a giggle.

When she is done laughing at me, or trying not to, she ducks her head a bit in shame. "Merida and Hiccup just arrived. They're sitting by the fire, and I think they might be hungry."

North jerks me back by the hood of my jacket and throws open the door. "Great! Time to eat!" He puts an arm around Rapunzel's shoulders and ushers her down the hallway. "The yetis are excellent cooks! They make splendid soups and salads. Just wait until you taste their pork chops!"

I watch North and Rapunzel walk down the hallway together and continue to laugh as I follow them. I don't know about the other two or the dragon, but I could definitely make a friend out of this girl. There is something different about her, something warm and bright, something I clearly know nothing about.

Hiccup

By the time we reach the Pole, I'm only as far as my first confrontation with Toothless. "Suddenly he stares up at me, a huge green eye with a black slit like a cat's for a pupil. With my knife clutched above my head," I mimic the gesture with a yeti's paint brush, "I could barely stand to look down at him. He looked so scared and hopeless."

Merida giggles but tries to stifle the laugh wither her hand. "He was wondering how such a wee lamb managed to shoot such a brave beasty such as he right out of the sky! Poor Toothless was probably embarrassed!" Merida grins at Toothless and strokes his head. Toothless flops down in Merida's lap like a puppy, "Such a sweet boy."

I watch in wonder at how comfortable Merida is around such a dangerous dragon, even if I have trained him. Then there she is, looking up at me, expecting the rest of the story. I try to smile, but her blue eyes make me feel like Toothless and I have been doing too many downward spirals. "Well… uh… I uh… Toothless, he…"

"Time for food!" North saunters in with Rapunzel in the crook of his arm. "Punzie has requested hazelnut soup, yes?" He looks down at the blonde girl.

"Yes, I'm cooking it." She smiles and looks to us with a question in her eyes.

Merida huffs. "Will there be lots of food? I'm starved!" She starts counting off foods on her fingers. "I like kippers and apples!" Rapunzel cringes a little.

Toothless moans, and I pat his head. "And Toothless needs raw fish, preferably cod. No eels, though." Then I remember I'm also ordering for myself. "I'll take some smoked cod."

North is making a list on a ridiculously small notebook compared to his giant hands. "Cod, no eel. Hazelnut soup. Kippers and apples." North glances up. "I don't keep sheep stomach."

Merida clutches her own stomach and turns a bit green. "Good!"

Rapunzel

The Pole has a humungous kitchen equipped with a giant wood-burning stove, shining copper pots as big as a yeti, and a stockpile of food big enough to feed the people of my kingdom for a year. "Wow. Do you have a Guardian of Culinary Arts or something?"  
Santa pats me on the back. "No, but there is opening. Have fun, Punzie." He leaves me with about a dozen yetis.

I clap my hands together to get their attention. "Alright, I need ten pounds of smoked cod and herring, plenty of apples, and hazelnuts. Find all of these ingredients," I hand one of the yetis the list for making the hazelnut soup and Jack's spaghetti. "And the rest of you come with me. I'm going to teach you my very own hot chocolate recipe."

The yetis disperse, and the remaining two follow me. They set up one of the kettles filled with water and bring me a plate piled high with huge chunks of chocolate. There are a couple different flavors of assorted chocolate displayed, but I manage to only take the ones that I need and start to add them to the boiling water bit by bit. Without looking up I start giving more orders, "Go get me some cinnamon, and I'll need some fresh cream."

Once they're gone, I start to hum the song that makes my hair glow, making sure not to say the words out loud. "Why hello, dear! I thought I'd never find you!" The rest of the chocolate and the plate drop from my hands and onto the floor with a crash.

**I hope you like cliffhangers... **


	12. The Search

Merida

My stomach growls again, and I groan. "Oh, come now! How long can it possibly take to make some lousy food?"

Hiccup is sketching in his little book again, so calm and relaxed that I could strangle him. He keeps sighing every time I move. He looks up now. "We did have a pretty high order, Mer. Especially after Jack asked for spaghetti." He goes back to doodling but doesn't stop talking. "I don't even know what 'spaghetti' is. Is it some kind of fish?"

Jack is draped over North's high-backed chair, his head resting on one armrest and his feet on the other with an arm over his eyes. "Spaghetti is the Italians' gift to the world. Spices and tomato sauce poured over handmade noodles cooked to perfection. And it only gets better when you add meat." Frost moans and drops the arm from over his eyes. "I can't wait any more!" With a twist and a thump, he rolls off the chair and onto his feet, resting his staff on his shoulder. "I'm going to see what's taking so long." Frost waltzes out, and everything goes silent again.

In one swift move, I lean forward, snatch the notebook from Hiccup's hands, and flip it around to see what he's been drawing. My suspicions are proven correct when I look down on my own image. He actually managed to capture my hair quite well which hardly happens literally let alone on paper, but my mouth and eyes seem wrong for some reason. My eyes seem worried or calculating, but my eyebrows are arched as if I'm smiling. "My face is all wrong." I look up at a very nervous, very frightened Hiccup. The poor lamb's shoulders slump forward a bit, eyebrows touch, and eyes turn a bit desperate. He looks so disappointed in himself, and it catches me entirely off guard. Slowly I hand back the notebook, not taking my eyes off of him.

He looks down at the picture disapprovingly. "Your face keeps changing. It never stays the same long enough for me to draw it." He tears out the page. "I should be fast enough to capture a simple emotion by now. I've been drawing since I was five." He crumples up the paper and tosses it aside. "If you need me, I'll be taking a nap." Hiccup lays down next to Toothless who is practically inside the fireplace. Toothless instinctively wraps his tail around Hiccup, and the two sleep in peace together.

When I'm sure that Hiccup is asleep, I carefully remove the notebook from his breast pocket. The notebook is simple, probably handmade, and thin. Some of it is filled with writing, mostly documenting his everyday affairs and talking about some girl called Astrid. I strive to ignore the burning sensation in my cheeks when I read these parts. Finally I reach a long collection of sketches. Most are of Toothless, but there are also ones of me, Jack, and Rapunzel. "Yah are talented, Hiccup."

Jack

When I get into the kitchen, everything is in an uproar. Yetis are running everywhere. Some are carrying buckets of water and some are pouring it onto a fire near the middle of the kitchen. Most of the food has been prepared but forgotten in the haste of trying to put out the fire. I pick up a plate of spaghetti and a fork as I wander through the chaos at a calm pace, searching for Rapunzel. By the time half of my plate is clean, I start to get worried. "Rapunzel?" She doesn't answer. I put down my plate and fork and corner one of the yetis with an empty bucket. "Have you seen her? Where is she, Rapunzel?"

The yeti shrugs and starts blathering. I glance over his shoulder at a pot boiling over on one of the stoves at the back of the kitchen. Pushing the yeti aside, I run for the stove, and when I get there, my heart drops. On the stove, next to the pot are small traces of black sand. "No."

Mere moments later, I'm back in the Main Hall and swooping down to where North sleeps in his chair. "North, they took her. They took Rapunzel. We have to find her. We have to find her now!" North blusters into a slightly conscious state, but I can tell that he still hasn't processed what I've just said. Anger burns in the deepest parts of me. "Wake up, North! They took her! Your stupid yetis let them take her! We've got to find her now!"

Hiccup and Merida are standing now. Merida clutches her bow. "Where would they take her?" She slides on her cloak and straps the quiver around her torso. A sword is already strapped to her side, and I know she's ready for this. _I can always rely on Merida to be ready for battle_, I realize. _She's the one with the surplus of sharp things._

"They could've taken her to Pitch's hideout," I start.

"Or Gothel could've taken her to the Tower that she was originally locked inside for eighteen years." North stands from his chair. "But, truly? She could be anywhere."  
Hiccup rushes out of the room, and I'm about to shout after him when he pokes his head back in. "I'll get some food for the journey to make sure that we have the energy to fight." I release my clenched fists. _I forgot about food. Hiccup has more brains than I thought, even under pressure. Maybe, just maybe, we stand a chance after all. If we can just find Rapunzel, we can stop Pitch. With Hiccup as the brains, Merida as the brawn, and Rapunzel as the heart, we can do this._ But that poses the question. _Where do I fit into this?_

Merida

I grab Jack's arm, forcing him to give me his attention. "I know you have feelings for her, Jack, but we've got to keep our heads. We need food and rest, or even if we do find her, Pitch will easily best us. He's ready. We aren't. Our best chance is to rest up and then go after her." He's about to argue, but something stops him. If he really does care for her, he'll do everything he can to help her, but I still want to reassure him. "If he captured her, that means he must need her for some reason. Otherwise he would've murdered her on the spot instead. But if he needs her, he won't hurt her. It's your choice though, Frost. I'll follow yah either way."

Hiccup stumbles into the room with a giant basket of food. "Toothless has to eat first, then we can leave." He looks up at me, and I know that now is the time that Jack has to make his choice. Will he be sensible or his usual impulsive self?

"Feed him as much as he wants, and then eat up yourself. For tonight, get some rest. We leave at dawn tomorrow." He looks down at me, and while it doesn't quite reach his eyes, he smiles. He wants me to think that he is happy with his choice, but I see the worry and fear in his eyes. "We'll find her, Merida. We have to. I'll make sure of it."

Hiccup

"Pitch's hideout is in Burgess." North points to a map of America. "I will take the other Guardians here." North flips to another map, this one of Corona. "This is the island that Rapunzel is from."

I recognize the Coronian crest immediately and nod. "I know it. I had to go there with my dad and the representatives of Berk once, some diplomatic thing." I think back to the journey that Dad and I went on two years ago.

Jack Frost glares at me from the corner of his eyes. "Vikings going on a diplomatic journey to a neighboring kingdom and you _didn't_ set fire to everything and plunder the city?"

I bite my lip and shrug. "I didn't say that… We didn't plunder so much as borrow… A fleet of ships… And the royal carriage. But we returned it all!" I shake my head and point to the map. "If I'm correct, Rapunzel's tower will be on this larger island here, just beside the mainland of Corona. We should probably stay away from the mainland though… I'm not exactly welcomed there."

Merida chortles in the background, and I try to ignore the burning sensation in my cheeks and ears. Sandy, who joined us not long after North sent out the distress signal, motions to a cove near the center of the island I've just pointed to. A small, sand tower appears above his head. Jack peers down at the map. "That's where the tower is?" Sandy nods, and the little man floats away to the back of the group of elves that is steadily assembling behind us.

Merida pushes aside the dingling-troll-like creatures and studies the map. "It'll be easily defended. If Pitch is there, it won't be easy to get in. Now, if we focus his fire on Hiccup and Toothless in the sky, Jack and I can slip in from below." She looks at Frost. "Jack?"

He shakes his head and I prepare myself for the argument that is sure to ensue between the two of them. "I'll be in the sky with Hiccup. I trust you can get in and take care of whoever might have Rapunzel. Once you're in, we won't be far behind." Jack grasps his staff in his hands and takes a deep breath. "Are we ready to go now?"

His impatience has been wearing him ragged. I can see the gray half-moons under his eyes from a mile away, and I'm not sure how ready he'll be for this fight if Pitch truly is holding Rapunzel in this tower. "It all seems too easy," I murmur. "But I'm ready to go if you guys are."

Merida pulls her hood over her unruly hair and nods. "Let's go get Punzie, then."

Rapunzel

Darkness. That's all I seem to remember. It's dark, and it's hot. And I'm scared. But I know that Jack and the others will come for me. Won't they?

_"__You'll never escape this again. This time, your true love isn't here to save you."_

There's that voice again. The one that keeps whispering to me all the time, even before I ended up in this dark, dark place.

_"__Mother knows best. That's why you're here again. I always knew best. If you had stayed in your tower, none of this would've happened. All this heart-ache could've been avoided. I tried to warn you. I tried to tell you. Mother always knows best."_

"I should've never left my tower. I was so safe there. Life wasn't so bad back then. I had a warm place to sleep and a friend to help pass the time. Mother, you were kind enough to me. Right?"

_"__You thought you could get rid of me, dear. But you and I are thick as thieves, Flower. I would never leave you. I'm only trying to protect you."_

"I know, Mother. You always wanted what was best for me."

_"__I came back for you, dear. Isn't that enough? Won't you sing for me? That'll chase the darkness away."_

Something inside me recoils. "I said I'd never use my hair again. I don't want this burden anymore."

_"__I've made a new friend, Flower. One that can take away your burden, but you have to sing for us, Darling. Won't you sing for me?"_

Tears stream down my cheeks and mingle with the sweat there. "I can't. I just can't."

_"__Fine," _the voice sounds hard. This is the voice that I truly remember. _"Then stay in the dark. When you decide to cooperate and be a good daughter again, then we'll talk."_


	13. Rapunzel's Tower

**This chapter gets a little bloody, and you all might hate me at the end of it. But don't say I didn't warn you!**

Jack

A hot breath of wind rolls over us as we crouch at the edge of the cliff that leads to a straight drop down into the cove. There are no black clouds circling this tower. No nightmares patrol the ground. It's just a quaint little tower standing in a meadow of wildflowers with a small, glistening pond reflecting the light of a brightly shining sun. This does not look like the place where an evil witch would keep a girl locked up for eighteen years. But this is the place. It has to be. This is the place where Rapunzel grew up. This is the place where they may be keeping her, and I'm going to find her if it kills me. Which is no easy feat.

"Alright," I breathe," let's go."

Merida

I weigh my options quickly as Jack and Hiccup take to the sky. At the base of the tower there is an obvious entrance, but at the top of the tower is an open window. If what Hiccup told me is correct, the door was not always used when Rapunzel was kept prisoner here, but they'll expect me to use it instead of the window. Since I'm not squeamish about heights, I pick scaling the wall. Slipping through the vines at the entrance of the cove, I take in a deep breath and glance up. Sure enough the boys are circling the top of the tower as we planned. Everything seems to be holding its breath as we wait. Are they really here at all?

Suddenly Jack drops from the sky like a rock. I almost scream, but I know that if I do, I'll give away my position. Hiccup and Toothless dart to Jack's aid, but then they begin to plummet to the earth. Now I scream and run for them as they hit the ground. "Jack! Hiccup!" A shadow passes over me, not the shadow of a bird or a man or even a dragon. I look up and see a creature that looks half-man and half-flying beast. I loose an arrow in its direction, but it seems to have no effect.

Nightmares pour from the entrance to the tower and rush the ground where Hiccup and Jack have fallen. The never-ending quiver on my back lives up to its name as I fire arrows at the Nightmares and hope to high heaven that I don't hit the boys or Toothless. A screech echoes through the air as Hiccup's dragon fights off what appears to be Ignis, the dragon-man Hiccup told me about. Jack explodes from the ground in a flash of blue light and ice, carrying a limp, unconscious Hiccup.

Toothless isn't far behind them as I race for the tower, hoping my cloak will buy me some time before the Nightmares realize my presence. I picture Crone's Tooth in my mind as I fit my hands into the spaces between the rocks of the tower, pulling myself up as fast as I can. Every movement seems natural as I scale the wall of the tower. Five feet up, something smashes into my back. I scream and scrabble to hold on.

Jack flashes past the corner of my eye and slashes at the Nightmare slamming into me. A rush of cold air hits and the Nightmare is gone. I look back and see frost patterns creeping up the shoulder of my cloak, but before I have time to marvel at the lovely ice, I remember where I am and what I'm doing. I climb with all my might for the top of the tower. Just as I reach the ledge of the window, something leaps out. Or someone. An old hag stands above me, her hair a writhing mess of black curls that look somewhat like my own. "Hello, dear." From the black cloak she wears, she pulls a dagger and the light of the sun flashes off of its sharpened point.

"Where is Rapunzel?" I demand as I reach for my own dagger with one hand as the other clutches the window's wooden ledge. "What have ya done with her?" My fingers wrap around the hilt of my blade and I sink it into the wood above me. With a better hold, I start to heave myself up. The hag makes a move to strike me, but something crashes into her, sending both it and her tumbling inside the tower. I rush in like mad to see what has happened, and I find the hag and Jack crumpled on the floor.

On the wall farthest from the window, Rapunzel is chained to the staircase leading out of the tower. She jerks towards me with a wild look in her eyes that can mean only one thing. _Run_. The hag rises from the floor and turns her evil glare on me. "No one will ever take my flower from me again!" And with the dagger raised, she lunges at me.

Hiccup

"What now, boy?" Ignis belches fire in my direction, and Toothless drops to avoid the flame. All the other Nightmares have scattered or splattered to some extent, and now only Ignis is left. "What will you do now that all your other little guardians have been captured?"

I groan and dodge another column of fiery death. "Even if you did capture Jack, you wouldn't want to keep him. He's really annoying, if you haven't noticed." Ignis ignores me and continues his rant.

"Jack Frost and Merida DunBroch will be disposed of. They are of no use to Pitch, and when we capture you, you will join them. Your dragon, however," Ignis tries is best to light me on fire again mid-sentence, "will be Pitch's to ride."

I get Toothless into position and fire a blast at Ignis, but the dragon-man dodges and flies past me, ripping his long talons across my side. I gasp and try not to fall off of Toothless. "He's not that easy to ride," I call, my voice sounding even weaker than it did before. "He can be as stubborn as a yak on milking day."

A scream erupts from the tower, and even though I've never heard her scream before, I know it's Merida. I change directions and shoot for the window to the tower. Toothless tucks in his wings and slips through. Inside, Pitch is waiting with a hoard of Nightmares. I moan and slump forward in Toothless's saddle. "Aw man, today sucks so bad." Then everything goes black.

When I wake up, I'm chained to a wall in the tower alongside Merida, Jack, and Rapunzel. Toothless is nowhere in sight, and my stomach drops. "What happened?" I look across the room and see everyone's defeated faces. Rapunzel's eyes meet mine. "Did I die?"

She smiles just a little before all feeling is washed from her face. "You were badly injured, along with Jack," she nods her head in his direction. "They haven't let me heal you yet, but I promise, I will Hiccup before…" She glances at Jack again, who hasn't moved much since I first saw him. "Before something worse happens."

I swallow the growing lump in my throat as my side throbs with pain. I try to catch Merida's eyes, but she won't look at me. "Merida? Are you ok?"

But before she can answer, Pitch walks into the room, looking very high and mighty. "Look at this. Look at this! I'm a bit underwhelmed, children. The Little Four all in one place, joining forces to defeat the Boogey Man!" He chuckles and clasps his hands together. "You should've brought the real Guardians."

"And you should get some sun, ya clapped-in feartie!" Merida spits at Pitch, and suddenly I know that she's just fine. "We are nae afraid of ye or ya oof-looking pish ya call horses!" And then she goes into a tizzy that none of us can discern.

Jack chuckles a little, but it sounds more like wheezing. "She's got quite the temper, Pitch. You better watch it. She might bite."

Pitch sneers and inches away from the howling, Scottish princess. "I wouldn't be so smug, Jack. After all your life is hanging on the balance here. We'll see just how immortal you are now, eh?" He chuckles and waves Jack's broken staff at us. "You, all of you, are not quite as strong as you thought you were. Barging in here like a bunch of kids, expecting to actually beat me. Me!" This seems to be really funny.

Rapunzel scoots closer to Pitch. "Please Pitch, let me help Jack and Hiccup. I'll do whatever you want me to after that." She seems earnest, and it makes me want to tell her not to heal me. But the searing pain in my side says something different.

Pitch glares at her in feigned amusement. "You've made this plea before, princess, and just look where it's gotten you. Give up on trying to save people. Everyone dies eventually." Pitch grabs Jack's chin. "Even Frost here."

That's when I notice the blood stain on Jack's hoodie and the pool of dark liquid that only grows beneath him. Panic floods my whole system, and I strain against the chains that are fastened to my wrists. "You're a coward, Pitch. Let us go and see how long you last against all of us at once without your little minions."

Merida finally stops shouting and glances at me with a fire in her eyes. She smiles and waves her hands at me, free of shackles. Before I have time to wonder how she has freed herself, Jack falls into a couching fit, and Pitch releases him. "Come on, Frost. You're free! What are you going to do now?"

Jack stops coughing, but he doesn't move. At all. Rapunzel screams just as Merida launches herself at Pitch.


	14. The Guardian of Fun

Jack

I moan and try to roll over, but someone pushes me back. Pitch, I remember Pitch had Rapunzel. "Let me go! Let me go, Pitch!" I open my eyes and images swim across my vision. Mother Gothel standing over Merida, about to strike. I remember tumbling to the floor with Gothel and the dagger… Finally I can see again and neither Pitch or Gothel are standing over me, it's Rapunzel.

"Jack?" She pushes her hair out of her eyes. I wince and moan again, and she breaks into a radiant smile. "You're ok."

"Ok?" I pant as a wave a nausea rushes over me. "I wouldn't say ok." My head bangs against the bed I'm laying in. "What happened? Last I remember we were captured in your tower." I press a cold hand to my head and realize something. I'm hot. I have a fever. How can I be anything but ice-cold? "What's happened to me?"

Rapunzel bites her lip and glances around. "Um, Mer? Hiccup? A little help please?" She looks down at me with so much raw emotion I feel like I'm drowning in her eyes. "You may notice some slight changes in your appearance, Jack. Something happened when I healed you, and I'm not sure what."

Suddenly my stomach does a couple back-flips ending in a face-plant and the reality of this situation is getting a little too real. "Rapunzel, what do I look like?"

She inhales sharply. "Well your hair and eyes are brown now…"

It hits me like a ton of bricks, and I leap to my feet. But I'm clumsier now, unable to float around as nimbly as I could before. Something is wrong, very wrong. "I have to find my staff. Where is it?" I turn to Rapunzel, and she's pulling something out of her satchel. It's the two broken halves of my staff. I exhale a breath I didn't know I was holding. "Good, I can fix this easily." I slam the two pieces together and concentrate all my energy on the place where they meet. "Come on, come on," I mumble.

"Jack," Rapunzel's voice breaks before she can finish. But I barely notice.

"I have to keep trying!" There is no blue spark, no icy blast that forms the two halves together again. "It's ok. I can do this. I don't need my staff to work my magic. I can do it on my own." I place my hand against a nearby window and am about to frost it over when I notice my reflection in the window. My hair and eyes are brown again, just like before… Before I became Jack Frost. "What the-?" I turn to Rapunzel and tears well in her eyes.

She collapses to the floor and cries. "I'm so sorry, Jack. I didn't mean for this to happen." She plants both her hands firmly on the ground and sobs. "You died, Jack. Something Pitch did to you… And I knew I had to bring you back, but then this happened! We brought you back to the Pole after you didn't wake up, but the Guardians couldn't make heads or tails of it. They think that what I did to you, it might be permanent. You… You aren't Jack Frost anymore." She risks a glance at me and then turns her head away again.

My jaw drops, and I stumble back and fall. "No." I fumble to grab the pieces of my staff in my hands. "No!" I shake my head and slam the pieces together again. "No! This can't be happening!" I cast the pieces aside and rush towards Rapunzel. I grab her shoulders and hoist her off of the ground. "I'm Jack Frost! I have to be! I am Jack Frost!"

Rapunzel's eyes show nothing but terror. "J-Jack I'm s-sorry. I-I don't know…"

I snarl at her. "What did you do? I have to be Jack Frost! I have to be!" She cries out when my grip on her shoulders tightens, and Merida storms into the room, a raging red-haired fury.

"Leave her alone, Jack! She saved your miserable life!" Merida grabs the front of my hoodie and wrenches me away from Rapunzel. "Leave, Punzie. I want to talk to Jack alone now."

Rapunzel grabs her satchel and clears out, shutting the door behind her. I push Merida off of me. "Where am I?"

"Yer in the infirmary at the North Pole ya twit! I got us out of the tower with one of North's little snow globes after you died." She doesn't even flinch when she spits out that last phrase. "Yer a beast, you are! That girl saved you! She's only brought one other person back from the dead, Jack, and that was her own husband! Hiccup lost Toothless, Pitch took my bow, and Rapunzel…" Merida sighs and sits down on my bed. "She hasn't been the same since we got her back. She's terrified of every shadow, swears that she hears voices, and even dreams about some large bear chasing her. She won't eat. She won't sleep…" She looks up at me, and I see the gray bags under her own eyes. "You don't know the hell we've all been through this last week."

This is news. "A week? I've been out a week?" I press my hand to my forehead again as everything starts to swim around me like wasps flying through syrup. "This can't be happening…"

Merida shrugs. "We've had a little more time to cope with this than ye have, Jack. Even the bit about us not being able to return home." When I give her a puzzled look, Merida explains. "After we brought ya back, North told us that he may not have enough magic to take us home, and without Toothless, Hiccup refuses to return by boat or anything. Rapunzel wanted to see to it that ya got better. She wishes to stay with the Guardians. And me?" She sighs again and rubs the place on her shoulder where her bow used to rest. "I'm not through with Pitch yet."

"So, you can return, but you aren't going to?" I sit down on the bed across from her, suddenly exhausted.

She nods. "Aye, the Guardians have begun to lose their powers. Without us, Pitch will soon take power. I suppose we better fight back while there is still breath in our bodies even if you've melted, Hiccup's wings have been clipped, and Punzie has gone stark-raving mad." She stands up, and her hands grip into fists at her sides. "I will protect my family, Frost. You can count on that." And with that, she storms out of the room leaving me in a shocked silence.

**Please comment**


	15. Healing Hiccup

Rapunzel

Hiccup leans his back against the giant fireplace as I stitch up the gashes in his shirt. I glance over at him, at the scars on his side. "Are those feeling any better? They still look irritated. I could heal them again if you…"

"No thanks, Punzie. I'm fine." Hiccup pulls his legs to his chest and rests his head on his knees. He looks even younger without his dragon beside him. "I let Toothless get captured. I'm a failure at life."

I look up from stitching the second whole and open my mouth to say something, but he doesn't look like he wants to talk anymore. _This is all my fault. If I had had the strength to fight off Gothel, I wouldn't have been captured. If I hadn't been captured, the others wouldn't have had to come after me. And if they hadn't come after me, Jack would still have his powers, Merida would still have her bow, and Hiccup would still have Toothless. I'm the one who's a failure._

"Rapunzel?" Tooth flutters into the room. She looks skittish and jittery, more of my own doing I'm sure. "North and the other Guardians, we would like to talk to you about what happened while you were captured. We need all the information you can give us." With a wave of her hand, I follow her lead and tell Hiccup that I'll mend his shirt as soon as I can. As I leave, I notice that he doesn't even bother to put it back on.

Merida

"Oh that Jack Frost burns me up sometimes! I duh nae know if he is just conceited or hurt, but either way I am done with his snarky attitude!" I charge into the Main Hall where it seems that I'm all alone. For once. I slide down the wall and crouch there on the ground. "I hate this. I want my Mum and Da. I even want me wee devils." Before I can stop them, tears well in my eyes and pour down my cheeks. I'm sobbing uncontrollably, and if I don't stop soon, someone will wander in and find me like this. And that would be the end.

"Mer?"

I look up to see Hiccup standing over me. Half-dressed no less. "Hiccup? H-How long have ya been there?"

Hiccup offers me a hand, and I take it, hoping that once I'm off the floor I'll look less like a wee, crying baby. He smiles a little and turns away. "The whole time. I guess I'm not very noticeable." He plops down beside the fireplace, and I follow him, setting myself beside him but with enough distance between us so that I don't feel… well… like my Mum is watching my every move.

I don't dare even a glance at Hiccup now. "Who says ya aren't noticeable? Why I'd… Well…" _Well what am I supposed to say to that? He's rather small. Not what most people look for in a Viking. He's not exactly strikingly handsome, but his face is kind and good-looking. He isn't very strong, couldn't through a caber if his life depended on it. _But then it dawns on me. "Hiccup, you aren't noticeable. Not on the outside anyway. All that's special about you is on the inside."

Hiccup chuckles a little and rubs his scars absentmindedly. "All that's special about me was Toothless. Without him I'm just a scrawny guy in a funny suit. That's how it always was before he came along. That's how it's going to be from now on."

I put my hands on my hips and rise to my knees so that I can give him a decent harsh look even if my eyes are puffy and red. "Aye, that might be so, but I believe ye have something special inside, Hicc. And the sooner you accept yer destiny, the sooner you can find yer fate. Maybe even change it." I pull the small book that the witch gave me from my cloak and flip to the page that I've practically memorized. "Look here, this page tells about Jack." I motion to the illustration of Jack rising from the frozen lake. "He underwent a transformation that turned him into Jack Frost. Now that he is, well, healed, I suppose he's lost his magic. He's lost his wings just as you have. But even before he was Jack Frost, he was good. He saved his sister's life, ya know. That's why he was chosen to be a Guardian. The reason you and Toothless have such a special bond is because you saw beyond the harsh, scaly outside and saw Toothless for who he really was. Even before you were a Dragon Rider, you had eyes that saw the good in even the worst looking creatures and the loyalty to protect your friendship no matter the cost. You've changed your island and the people and creatures living on it for the better. If that's not noticeable, yer blind as a bat." I snap the book shut. "That'll be all for today. I'm bone weary. Time to hit the hay, I s'pose."

I get up and walk towards the infirmary, where we'll all be spending the night tonight. But as I'm walking down the dark hallway, I feel a hand grasp mine. Just before I lop off the person's head who would dare touch me, I realize it's Hiccup. He practically doubles over in terror, but when I lower my sword, the color comes back to his cheeks and turns them as red as a radish. "I-I… Well you see Mer…" He groans and shakes his head. "Ah, forget it." Hiccup starts to storm off, and I feel like it's all my fault.

"Wait! Hiccup!" I call after him, but he doesn't turn back. And instead of chasing him, I feel frozen to the spot. After he is well out of ear-shot, I whisper, "I love you, too Hicc. And I mean that."


End file.
